posted on September 26, 2009 10:48
Acting Minister for Police, Kristina Keneally, today launched Crime Stoppers’ new Graffiti campaign Ms Keneally called on the public to help keep our streets clean by dobbing in graffiti vandals.
“The eyes of the public are the best weapons against graffiti, which costs the community millions of dollars each year,” Ms Keneally said. “The best defence against graffiti is members of the public picking up the phone to report not only the vandals but also the vandalised site.
“Not only is graffiti ugly, but it can attract further crimes if it’s not quickly removed.
“That’s why the NSW Government has introduced tough anti-graffiti legislation to tackle the issue. “The great challenge for police is to drive down graffiti crime, with more than 11,000 graffiti incidents recorded in NSW in 2006.
“People can dob in a graffiti vandal by calling the Crime Stoppers Hotline on
1800 333 000 or the Police Assistance Line on 131 444: 24hrs per day - 7 days per week. “Local councils spend an average of $65,000 each year cleaning up graffiti, while organisations such as RailCorp spend up to $15 million, which is simply unacceptable.”
Ms Keneally said the NSW Government was cracking down on the graffiti by:
Making it an offence for businesses to sell spray paint to under 18s;
Giving police the power to confiscate spray paint from unsupervised juveniles in
public; Creating the Anti-Graffiti Action Team to review all anti-graffiti laws and consider a total ban of spray paints in NSW; and Setting up the Police/Rail Counter Vandalism Taskforce to target graffiti and vandalism on the rail network.
Ms Keneally said police relied heavily on information supplied by the public to catch graffiti vandals. “Hardworking NSW families deserve to live in an environment free of spray painted tags and other crude messages used to deface public property.
“Graffiti vandals face fines of $2,200 and up to 6 months jail if they’re caught defacing property. Offenders can also be ordered to personally remove the graffiti.”